County hits the mats

What: Fourth annual Franklin County Wrestling Tournament

When: Saturday, first round at 10 a.m.; final round at approximately 3 p.m.

Where: Nolde Gymnasium, Mercersburg Academy

Who: Chambersburg, Shippensburg, Greencastle-Antrim, James Buchanan, Waynesboro, Mercersburg Academy

Format: Five rounds of individual bouts with three mats in use; final round includes seeds 1 vs. 2, 3 vs. 4 and 5 vs. 6

Admission: $5 for adults; $3 for students

By ED GOTWALS

Sports editor

The Franklin County Wrestling Tournament has seen its share of change.

Now in its fourth year, the event has changed yet again for 2010.

When the tournament unfolds Saturday -- weather permitting -- at Mercersburg Academy, it will emphasize the individual a little more and give fans the majority of top matchups at one time.

"My motivation was to give the final round kind of a championship feel," Mercersburg athletic director Rick Hendrickson said. "It is an individual tournament that contributes to a team champion."

In the past, the Franklin County event used a dual meet format that crowned individual champions and named a team champion based on points awarded during the duals.

A typical individual tourney seeds each wrestler in a weight and uses brackets to pair them up, with quarterfinals, semifinals and finals.

Saturday's tournament will seed each wrestler in each weight, then use a round-robin format so that each

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wrestler faces everybody else in his weight class.

The first round begins at 10 a.m. on three mats with the No. 1 seed at each weight facing one of the other seeds. In each round, wrestlers will take on a different opponent.

In the final round, scheduled to begin at about 3 p.m., all of the No. 1 seeds will take on the No. 2 seeds, while No. 3s will meet No. 4s and No. 5s and No. 6s will pair off.

Hendrickson said, "The concept is to highlight the individuals who are the top two seeds. That won't always be the championship match at each weight, but this way the last two rounds will be the most significant.

"And instead of having all the focus on maybe one dual meet, we'll likely have all the schools represented in the final round."

Chambersburg coach Doug Rine said, "I'm looking forward to it. I'm not sure how I'll like (the new format) because I haven't gone through it yet, but I'm not afraid to try it. The bottom line is that seeds don't matter too much because you're going to wrestle everybody anyway."

One area coach said he would like to keep the dual meet system.

"I personally like dual meets better," James Buchanan coach Matt Gordon said. "I think our team does better in them."

Hendrickson, a former coach for the Blue Storm, said his team had been in tournaments with this round-robin format before.

"In a lot of weights there may be clear No. 1 and 2 seeds, but in other weights, there could be more than two top wrestlers," Hendrickson said. "And you could always have upsets along the way."

Team points are accumulated by each wrestler -- five points for a pin, disqualification or injury default, four points for a technical fall, three points for a major decision or forfeit, and two points for a decision.

The wrestler with the best record is the champion. If two or more have the same record, head-to-head will be the first criteria used to decide.

The weather may be an issue. The current forecast has a snowstorm starting Friday and continuing into Saturday.

Hendrickson said, "We'll come up with a Plan B. I'll have to contact everybody to see what days might be possible, but it will be for some day next week."

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Ed Gotwals may be reached at 262-4755 and egotwals@publicopinionnews.com.